{VIDEO} Meet My Love
When Addition Elle reached out to me about their fall campaign, and how they wanted to highlight love and relationships in celebration of their Love & Legend collection, I was thrilled to be cast with Ali alongside a diverse group of women and their partners. I've written about this before, but I think it's so important to be vocal and visible about love and relationships, if only because my own history and experiences proved that I didn't always believe I was deserving of love - especially as a fat, gay, just-generally-not-the-norm individual. Watching the final video made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my eyes - the sincerity between each of the couples featured is so refreshing.
While we were filming, I actually started crying talking about how long it took me to come to the realization that I do deserve love; that I felt like I was unlovable until I got to some unrealistic goal of what a woman is meant to be in a relationship. I viewed myself as a "work in progress," and until I reached that goal, I wasn't someone that could or should be in a relationship, have admirers, or know my worth in a relationship. Settling for less was basically my M.O. when it came to dating and relationships until relatively recently, (apologies to my exes, if you happen to be reading this, but let's admit that we were absolutely not a good fit or did not meet at the right time and place in our lives).
My relationship now is one where I find strength, support, validation, and am constantly reminded of my worth. We balance each other out. We share the same goal about our future, about the lives we want to live, and about the success we envision for ourselves as individuals and as a unit. To be able to experience that for myself, and share it as an example of what love women like me can experience feels like an enormous privilege. I'm so grateful for the love I experience and to share our story with you!
You can see a couple other teasers from the campaign here, and here! I also loved what I wore for the shoot, the waterfall vest and printed skirt are both available at Addition Elle.